188 
ASPIDIACE.E 
Lastk^a Oeeopteris, Presl, Babington. 
Aspidium Oreopteris^ Smith, Hooker. 
This fern, as its name implies, is an inhabitant of mountains, 
and is more rarely found on low ground, and very seldom in 
highly cultivated districts. It is particularly abundant in the 
Highlands of Scotland, being in many of the mountain wilds 
more common than Pteris aquilina : it also abounds in the hill 
districts of the north of England and Wales. It is not, how- 
ever, confined to hills, since we find it sparingly in all our coun- 
ties where there is waste ground : it approaches London on all 
sides, occurring on Wimbledon common, Hampstead heath. 
High Beech, and Blackheath. Notwithstanding its apparent 
partiality for exposed and elevated districts, it grows more beau- 
tifully and luxuriantly in woods, especially where intersected by 
a little stream, on the banks of which it will often be observed 
in profusion. In Ireland it is very sparingly distributed : I only 
observed it in abundance in two spots, near Milroy bay in the 
county Donegal, and near Glendalough in the county Wicklow. 
It occurs sparingly in the Killarney district, and Mr. Moore has 
observed it in the county Derry. 
Lastrdda Oreopteris grows throughout Europe, but, according 
to Sadler, is confined to this continent, and I have seen it from 
no other part of the world : in one or two instances it has been 
confounded, though very injudiciously, with the Lastrcea Nova- 
horacensis of the United States, a perfectly distinct species. 
The figures of this fern are generally good : that in Bolton, 
to which I have already alluded as bearing the name of the pre- 
ceding species, is excellent. 
This fern has received four specific names, besides that of 
Thelypteris erroneously assigned to it : it is the Polypodium 
montanum and subsequently the Polystichum montanum of 
Roth,^ the Polypodium Oreopteris of Ehrhart and Dickson, f the 
Polypodium fragrans of the second, but not of the first, edition 
of Hudson’s ‘ Flora Anglica,’ J and the Aspidium odoriferum of 
^ Roth, Flor. Germ. iii. 74. f Trans. Linn. Soc. i. 18i, 1791. 
t Flora Anglica, 457. 
